Important independent monarchy in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) at the end of the 15th century and the last Sinhalese kingdom to be subjugated by a colonial power.
Kandy survived the predations of the Portuguese by allying with the Dutch and survived the Dutch by seeking British aid; when the British took over Ceylon in 1796, Kandy was left on its own. The first British attack on Kandy in 1803 failed; in 1815 Kandyan chiefs invited the British to overthrow a tyrannical king, and in 1818 those chiefs' rebellion against the British was suppressed.